A second unbiased witness within the homicide of M M Kalburgi has recognized the person who shot the 77-year-old Kannada literary scholar exterior his home in Dharwad in 2015.
The witness, who was working at an residence advanced positioned reverse Kalburgi’s residence, recognized Ganesh Miskin, 29, who was affiliated with a right-wing outfit in Hubbali metropolis, because the shooter. The witness additionally recognized Amol Kale, 39, a former convenor of the Sanatan Sanstha affiliated Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, as a person who was seen shifting round the home. Kale allegedly plotted the execution of the homicide.
The second unbiased witness recognized each folks through the trial in a district court docket in Dharwad on Thursday.
In August, one other unbiased witness — who had a retailer reverse the Kalburgi residence — had recognized the bike rider who introduced the shooter to the scholar’s home on August 30, 2015. This rider, who had allegedly waited exterior earlier than escaping with the shooter after the homicide, was recognized as Praveen Chatur, 29, a Hindutva activist from the neighboring Belagavi area.
In March, Kalburgi’s daughter Roopadarshi Ok, who was current at her father’s residence on the day he was murdered, broke down within the court docket after figuring out Miskin because the shooter.
She additionally recognized Chatur as the person who was ready on the bike exterior the home. The scholar’s spouse Umadevi additionally recognized Miskin in March.
The 4 witnesses who’ve recognized Miskin, Chatur and Kale had earlier recognized them throughout take a look at identification parades performed through the investigation part of the case.
The second unbiased witness is about to be cross-examined subsequent month by defence advocates following the chief assertion made in court docket on Thursday by the witness.
Miskin can also be accused within the taking pictures of the journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. Kale, too, is accused within the Gauri Lankesh case.
Kale, a former convenor of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, was allegedly a key chief of a right-wing extremist group that was assembled by recruiting youths with extremist mindsets from Hindutva outfits just like the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, Sanatan Sanstha, Sri Rama Sene and Shri Shivpratishthan Hindustan.
The extremist group – recognized as an organized crime syndicate by the Karnataka police – is alleged to have been concerned in as many as 4 focused assassinations of progressive thinkers between 2013 to 2017 in Maharashtra and Karnataka other than finishing up petrol bomb assaults on theaters through the screening of the movie Padmavat in 2018.
In March 2019, a Particular Investigation Workforce of the Karnataka police which investigated the 2017 homicide of the journalist Gauri Lankesh was handed the investigation of the Kalburgi homicide – on a plea filed within the Supreme Courtroom by the scholar’s spouse Umadevi Kalburgi stating that investigations within the Lankesh case had proven that her husband was killed with the identical gun that was used to kill the journalist.
The SIT probe in Karnataka had revealed that the journalist Lankesh, 55, and the scholar Kalburgi had been killed with the identical gun and that the gun was used to kill the Leftist thinker Govind Pansare, 81, in Kolhapur, in Maharashtra in February 2015 (whereas a second gun – used within the Pansare taking pictures, was used to gun down the rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, 69, in Pune in August 2013).
In August 2019, the SIT recognized Ganesh Miskin and Praveen Prakash Chatur because the perpetrators of the killing of Kalburgi. 5 individuals who’ve been charged for the Gauri Lankesh homicide are additionally accused within the Kalburgi homicide case. Solely Praveen Chatur just isn’t accused within the Lankesh homicide case of 2017 however is accused within the 2015 Kalburgi homicide.
The opposite accused within the Kalburgi case are Vasudev Suryavanshi, 31, a bike mechanic who stoles bike for the murders, Sharad Kalaskar, 29, the alleged shooter within the Dabholkar homicide who dumped the weapons used for the homicide, and Amit Baddi, 29, a Hubli affiliate of the alleged shooter Ganesh Miskin who offered logistics for the homicide of Kalburgi and Lankesh.
The SIT which filed its cost sheet within the Kalburgi homicide case in August 2019 has acknowledged that the 77-year-old literary scholar was focused by right-wing Hindutva extremists for statements wrongly attributed to him following a seminar in opposition to superstitious practices held in 2014.
In June 2014, in the middle of his participation in a dialogue on the subject ‘In direction of a superstition free society’ as a part of a debate on ‘Enactment of Karnataka Prevention of Superstitious Practices Invoice, 2013’ held on the Vigyan Bhavan, Bengaluru, the Kalburgi quoted the Jnanpith award profitable author U R Ananthamurthy and stated that urinating on idols of Gods wouldn’t appeal to retribution.
The quote was from a set of essays printed in 1996, the place the late Jnanpith award-winning author, Ananthamurthy, had talked about urinating on idols as a toddler. Kalburgi’s statements within the debate had been nonetheless portrayed as his personal within the media.
The journalist Gauri Lankesh and the literary scholar M M Kalburgi had been murdered by a bunch whose members acted in keeping with ideas outlined in a guide referred to as Kshatra Dharma Sadhana printed by the right-wing Hindutva outfit Sanatan Sanstha, the SIT stated in its cost sheet within the Lankesh case.
“The members of this group focused individuals who they recognized to be inimical to their perception and beliefs. The members strictly adopted the rules and ideas talked about in “Kshatra Dharma Sadhana”, a guide printed by Sanatan Sanstha,” the SIT stated.
The secretive group had members who had been “indoctrinated and actively underwent arms coaching, taking pictures apply and had been skilled within the manufacture and use of bombs with the intention of selling insurgency and creating concern in society,” the SIT stated.